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Civil rights, history museums planned for Mississippi

Mississippi is hoping to make history again — this time with the nation's first state-sponsored civil rights museum. This fall, officials will break ground on the civil rights museum and the companion Museum

Civil rights, history museums planned for Mississippi

The projects, which trace both state history and Mississippi's role in the civil rights movement, need $30 million to be finished for state's 2017 bicentennial.

This fall, Mississippi officials expect to break ground on a civil rights museum and companion Museum of Mississippi History, shown in artist rendering, in hopes of having both ready in time to celebrate the state’s bicentennial in 2017.(Photo: Gannett/The Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger)

This fall, officials will break ground on the civil rights museum and the companion Museum of Mississippi History in hopes of having both ready in time to celebrate the state's bicentennial in 2017.

There's one catch — $30 million is needed to finish the inside of the buildings, which share a common area.

Under the law, the state has agreed to a 50-50 split between state and private funding for 50,000 square feet of exhibits for the museums. Archives officials estimated the acquisition and creation of the exhibits at $14-$16 million.

Kane Ditto, chairman of the archives board, said private fundraising is under way. "We're at $2.25 million, and we're just starting," he said.

Hank Holmes, executive director of the state Department of Archives and History, said when the 2014 legislative session comes, he plans to make his pitch to lawmakers for at least $30 million in bonds. "This will be a major celebration project for the 2017 bicentennial," he said.

The Museum of Mississippi History will feature interactive maps for Civil War buffs and let music lovers listen to Muddy Waters, Elvis Presley, Jimmie Rodgers, Leontyne Price and others.

The museum will seek to cover the first civilizations in the state through Mississippi becoming a territory, then a state, following the journey and people through cotton, slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Great Depression, the New Deal, World War II and through social change since.

Officials estimate the two museums will create an annual economic impact of $19 million a year.

"It makes Jackson a destination," said state Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson, who serves on the advisory board for the civil rights museum. "We're telling a story, and it's an important story to the evolution of Mississippi and the country at large."

Mississippi is significant

The state played a huge role in the national civil rights movement, from the 1955 Emmett Till slaying that drew international attention and became a tipping point, he said.

The movement led young people to rise up in Mississippi and led others to come to the state, he said. "It really spawned a lot of youth action here and all over the country. It also demonstrated the power of common people to take a stand and bring about change."

Jacqueline K. Dace, project director for the civil rights museum, said the place would play an important role for students, many of whom "don't know this story. They think the civil rights movement took place 100 years ago. They still associate the days of Jim Crow racism with slavery."

The civil rights museum will feature eight exhibition galleries, including a gallery titled "This Little Light of Mine," encircled by the rest.

Dace said the last two galleries would enable visitors to interact and give feedback.

"We're still struggling with issues of civil rights or human rights," she said. "It's crucial we understand all the things we've come through and where we are now."

Myrlie Evers-Williams, whose first husband, Medgar Evers, was assassinated in Jackson 50 years ago, said she is glad to see a civil rights museum finally become a reality in her home state.

"I believe Mississippi will prove to be one of the best places to live," she said. "We want people to know our history. We want them to no longer say, 'Oh, you are from Mississippi?'"

Sojourn to the Past founder Jeff Steinberg of San Francisco, who has taught high school students on civil rights trips to the South for more than a dozen years, believes the Mississippi civil rights museum can be an important destination.

He hopes the museum will honor not just a few of the best-known martyrs of the movement but many others whose "stories need to be told and heard," he said.

For instance, only one out of 100 students is familiar with the name of Bob Moses, the guiding force for 1964's "Freedom Summer," he said.

Important teaching tools

Former Gov. William Winter said these two museums are important because it's been demonstrated that "museums are one of the finest methods we have to teach, especially for young people."

Black and white Mississippians have lived side by side for three centuries. "We have lived together closely physically, but there has always been this cultural divide where we have had trouble appreciating the different perspective each race has had," he said.

He recalled growing up on the farm with the children of sharecroppers. "We played together, hunted together, swam together, but when school started we went to different schools," he said. "There was always a gulf between."

When World War II came, he and his childhood friend, Roy Noel, parted ways as they each entered the armed forces. "The Army was as segregated as Mississippi," he recalled.

A half century later, the men reunited. After reminiscing about their childhoods together, Noel spoke up and said, "My slave grandfather played with your grandfather on the farm out there. You and I played together. Now we're sitting here together, and we can talk about where we've come from."

Winter believes the creation of these two museums "is going to be an exercise in racial reconciliation."

He said those experiencing the Museum of Mississippi History inevitably will be drawn to tour the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, too, and vice versa. "We're going to be educating people in one location," he said, "so that all have a better perspective where we have all come from."

Artifacts sought

Mississippi archives officials are looking for artifacts on these subjects: